What You Are In The Darkness
by Chen Stormstout
Summary: In the months that followed the fall of the House of Wolves, Pharrik, a Fallen captain, now serves as a mercenary for House Devils in the frozen north of Old Russia. Draid, a Guardian, and hunter, crosses paths with him during a skirmish, and something happens. Now, both are trapped in the dark below, forced to cooperate, or else be devoured by the ravenous swarms of the Hive.
1. Chapter 1: Winter's Fury

Chapter 1: Winter's Fury

The blizzard raged on in the cold, frigid night, through the outskirts of the ruined city in northern half of Old Russia. Snow and ice pelted down from the sky in sharpened, icy shards, and the wind blew it with a strong enough force to flay an improperly-dressed man alive, assuming the fourty-below temperature didn't freeze him to death first. The ground, once littered with rusted, old cars, dirt, small trees, and rubble, was now covered in an almost seven-foot layer of snow and frost and ice.

Winter had come in full force upon the continent, and with it, nature had assured that there was no room for stragglers in her frozen domain. But, through this wasteland, a single, four-armed figure suddenly appeared, braving through the self-made tundra's battlefield.

Through this blinding storm, a Fallen captain, clad in fleeces, furs, and light blue captain's armor, trudged forward. He wore a thick cloak of a dark, blue color that swayed in the powerful wind on his back, and a white-lined symbol of the House of Wolves showed on it. The dark, gray-colored fur that lined the back collar of it was completely crusted with ice and snow, and two, large, curved horns adorned it, sticking up from his shoulders, and into the air behind the Fallen's armored head, an intimidating trophy from a hunt long past, as a newer trophy, one made of the fangs of some creature, hung in a necklace around his neck.

In the Fallen's upper, three-fingered forehands was a shrapnel launcher, its barrel lit with a fiery red light, and above it, around his chest, but partially hidden underneath where the cape's front draped, was a single scabbard, containing a large shock dagger. His lower pair of hands remained drooped, rubbing one another in an attempt to make heat.

Every step he took crunched through the ground, leaving footprints that were immediately covered back up by the snow that fell. Breath exited where the front of his mouth's steel, light blue, mask-like respirator was, forming a cloud in front of his equally covered face. His four, glowing blue eyes, in their wrinkled and grayish-brown sockets, the only part of his real face sticking out in the storm, blinked, and looked ahead, to the rapidly growing orange dot that appeared through the blizzard.

Getting closer, anyone could see it was a fire he had spotted, burning in an iron oil drum, and it was lit underneath the remains of a concrete building's doorway. The construct, having formerly been a museum, or something of that like, was one of the largest structures in the abandoned city, and one of the few ones not completely engulfed in snow.

Another figure stood by it in the doorway, all four arms folded, body shivering from the cold. It was a vandal of the House of Devils, as seen by his red cloak, and pieces of white-and-red armor. He didn't appear to be enjoying his position, judging by how fast his teeth chattered from behind his mask.

"Wh-who g-g-goes there?" the vandal suddenly asked, finally catching eye of the fellow Fallen, once he was close enough to let his camouflaged armor stick out enough from the storm to tell the difference. He raised his wire rifle, and pointed it at the intruder in haste.

"It is Pharrik the Hoarfrost" the newcomer revealed in his dry-sounding voice, his weapon still held down in an unoffensive way.

"Ph-Pharrik? Oh... I-I thought i-i-it was you..." the vandal sighed in relief, lowering his rifle from his slightly larger-sized ally. "Anything t-to rep-p-port?"

"The outer perimeter is secured" he responded. "No humans, Exos, Guardians or Ghosts to be spied... As if any would be sane enough to try to travel here at this time. Cold would kill them dead before three miles of walking."

"B-baroness Sifaxis Wolf's Eye is w-waiting inside" he said again, opening the old, dented metal door that lead inside the building.

Without a word, Pharrik rubbed past the soldier, and entered, while the vandal put the fire in the barrel out, before joining him inside, his job thankfully, and finally finished.

"D-damn c-cold..." the vandal muttered under his breath, as he closed the door behind himself and the captain.

Pharrik walked through the dark building, adjusting to the heat, feeling as the ice began to melt from his cape and armor. He watched as a Servitor flew by in the air, its purple light illuminating the darkness from its eye, and followed it, eventually coming into the large living area, where dozens of other vandals and two-armed dregs stood or sat, talking with each other, and socializing, showing off what they managed to scavenge during the daytime, and the like. Some looked at Pharrik, but not for too long, and others immediately got out of his way if he was moving toward them, knowing of what kinds of penalties would follow if they so much as bugged such a high-ranking individual.

Walking deeper into the old building's very large, and now empty hallways, he passed several more dregs, working in the ruined and bare rafters above him, and heard a few sifting inside the panel-less walls beside him, making chittering and hissing noises, and generally quite a clatter as they burrowed and fixed. There were also a few vandals, patrolling past him.

It was a good fifteen minutes before he finally reached the metal stair railing that lead to the room he was looking for. Upon reaching the rusted, but still somewhat green door, with the human word " _curator_ " still, mostly, on the front of it, he opened it quietly, and spotted four figures inside.

There were two vandals, standing in front of a shoddy, wooden desk, each sporting the colors of House Devils, and past them, he saw the familiar shape of the baroness, in her white-and-blue colors of House Wolves. While she wore her helmet, her respirator was down, revealing her sharp, jagged teeth, and exposing much of her wrinkled, gray-and-brown face.

Pharrik also saw one Devils captain as well, sitting down on an empty booth nearby, polishing his shock rifle with a discarded rag, as he apparently listened to what the baroness had to say. He glared at Pharrik as he passed by, before returning to his work.

"...Search the upper levels, and you two, tell the other vandals and dregs to scrounge in the cellar" she was saying to them, pointing at paper of the building's layout that laid on the desk. "Inform me of whatever you find, keep what scrap you salvage, and..."

She caught sight of Pharrik standing behind the vandals as she turned her head up, and became quiet.

"And... You know what must be done. You may all go now, yes?" she finished, putting her forehand up to shoo them away. Obediently, the vandals left, and, with a huff, the captain got up as well, and went with them, brushing past Pharrik, and hurrying the two vandals further with a hard shove aimed at the backs of their necks.

As they closed the door behind themselves, Pharrik calmly walked up to Sifaxis, and placed his shrapnel launcher on the desk, on top of the paper with the map of the building's interior.

"Wolf's Eye" he greeted to his mate, referring to the baroness's surname.

"Hoarfrost" she replied, referring to his own. "Have you spotted anything on your rounds?"

"Snow, ice, wind. Nothing else" he responded. "The storm, as thick as it appeared to be, was easy to wade through. From what I saw when I returned, though, these pups can't handle it. You were wise to send me to the outer perimeter."

As soon as they were both within arm's reach of each other, they embraced, and butted their helmeted foreheads together, affectionately.

"I missed you" he said, chittering his teeth with happiness. "How have these Devils been treating you?"

"With respect, as they have been, since I was granted leadership over them by the Archon of their House" she said. "Even that captain you saw's arrogance dims when I give him orders."

After a few more passionate seconds, Sifaxis let a sigh escape her mouth, and Pharrik could immediately sense that something was on his mate's mind, and was giving her distress.

"What troubles you?" he decided to ask. Her four eyes opened, and looked into his, before she sighed again.

"Three more dregs have gone missing since you left this morning. It's why I sent those three to look for them again" she spoke again, their embrace slowly breaking off. "Gone like candles in the darkness. No trace. Do you think they deserted?"

"It would be mad to attempt so here, and even so, your leadership is much... "Gentler," than some of the other captains and barons" He said.

Sifaxis chuckled lightly as she heard him say that.

"They would have no reason to leave" Pharrik continued. "I also have doubts any Guardian picked them off. Only a Guardian could be hardy enough to venture out here, and snipers leave bodies, but, as you said, they're missing, and the snowstorm is too thick to see through. They might have tried killing up close, but there was no gunfire, and a knife fight would have been noticed too easily..."

"My guess is they went outside for a breath of air, and were swallowed up by the storm" she said. "It is most unnerving to me, though. The third time in the last few days, it is just so odd... So queer..."

"Do not let it bother you, my beloved" Pharrik said, reassuringly. "I've seen many a fellow Eliksni get buried alive by a hidden snow trap-pit before. I am thinking that that's what had happened."

"...That may be, but, either way, I think I should have security boosted for a few days until it stops" she responded again.

"That sounds most wise" Pharrik agreed. "I swear to the Prime Servitor, you could make a good Kell."

"Hmhmhm..." she hummed. "Shall you continue your flattery over some ether? I'm sure those rations you brought with you have run out."

"Of course" he replied, turning to the door, and holding open to let her out first. After she exited, he went out as well, and closed the door behind himself.

* * *

The morning had arrived quickly, and with it, the storm had abated, leaving a bright, cloudless blue sky above the land.

Across the wasteland of fallen snow, three, irregularly-shaped piles of snow sat next to an old tree, deep in the wilderness. Without warning, one of them, the one furthest on the left, suddenly moved, and broke open, revealing a humanoid shape underneath.

As he stretched, yawned, and pushed the snow off of himself, the human, wearing hunter armor and helmet, and a light, brown cloak and hood, looked around at the stillness, admiring the beauty of the sun shining off of the ice crystals in the surrounding trees that survived the night's winds.

It wasn't long before the Guardian turned to the other two snow piles, and decided it was time to move them.

"Hey, you guys awake?" he asked, looking to his right. "Vara-twelve, you there?"

"I'm always awake before you, Draid" a feminine voice replied, as a female Exo, painted a white-and-steel color, and wearing a dark brown cowl, dug herself out of the bank. The warlock turned, and looked at the hunter, a smile on her metallic face, and blue eyes focussed on him. "I was just waiting for you two to show your faces. And, speaking of which..."

They both turned to the last snow pile, which wasn't moving. With a punch from Vara, the occupant inside, a human titan named Geryl, let out a grunt of discomfort as some of the snow caved in on him, waking him up with a start.

"Pfft, ack, grr... I'm up! I'm up!" the titan growled, bursting out of the snow, wiping most of it off of his pale face. "Ah, damn it, guys... You could've just yelled, or something!"

"I'm not one for yelling" Vara shrugged, with a smirk.

"...And we hunters can't make a lot of noise. We like stealth" Draid finished, sarcastically.

"Oh, ha, ha, ha..." Geryl laughed dryly, as he put his large, black-visored helmet on over his head, and adjusted his black cape. The moment he did, Draid's Ghost suddenly materialized in front of them all.

"Good morning, you three" the little, white-colored construct spoke to them in its monotonous voice, looking at them each with his eye. "I trust you all had a pleasant night?"

"If by "pleasant" you mean "utterly frozen," then yes, I did" Geryl scoffed.

"Yes, well, frigid nights and powerful snowstorms are to be expected in this part of the world" the Ghost continued. "I didn't say it would be easy reaching where we're headed."

"Well, are we close to the place?" Geryl asked again.

"Yes, we are" he replied. "The old "abandoned" museum of _the History of Spaceflight_ is only eight more miles from here. If my calculations are correct, the Fallen Archon should be there."

"...And, as you said, by killing him, we'll cripple the Devils up here?" Draid guessed.

"Yes" the Ghost responded. "With another Archon dead, the Fallen up here will most likely retreat back down into the southern part of Old Russia again, leaving them with with much less territory to keep, and making them barely a threat."

"Think it might be another decoy base?" Draid inquired, inspecting his knife, before sheathing it again. "Ya'know, like the last three we shot up?"

"I don't think so, but if it were, he would have only two other locations to hide in up in this region, none of them very well fortified, or pleasant, for that matter" the ghost said again.

"Well, Fallen _can_ be quite hardy, I don't know..." Vara chuckled.

"You may want to hurry..." the construct said once more. "It may look pretty now, but that storm is going return by noontime. Just as a heads-up."

"Well, in that case, let's wake up faster then, ladies" Geryl mocked with a competitive laugh, toward his teammates. "Let's get on our Sparrows and get out of here."

"Already on it" Vara and Draid spoke at the same time, as all three of them stood up. After brushing off the last snow off of themselves, and stretching their frozen joints out, they activated their Sparrows, and the small crafts appeared out of thin air.

The Ghost dissipated as they hopped onto their vehicles, and the three sped off, trying to beat the coming storm.

* * *

 **Author's notes:** I don't play Destiny, I admit it, but from what I've read online so far, their lore, especially what they've centered around the Fallen, is very intriguing, despite what it lacks in the "story" part. That's why I'm writing this, and sorry if I screw up a little on a few parts, due to my lack of knowledge on certain things.


	2. Chapter 2: The Coming Storm

Chapter 2: The Coming Storm

It was late morning. Pharrik walked out of the building, shrapnel launcher in hand, and took in a breath of the fresh, cold air through his respirator. Clouds had already begun to form overhead, indicating an approaching storm, to his delight.

He looked around the snowed-in courtyard, and outlying buildings, resembling a desert of snow and ice, save for the ruins, trees, and ice-laden stockades and walls, the latter of which were built from the scavenged sheet metal and brick that littered the land, and poked up through the ground at random.

As he watched dregs setting up their guard, or working around, and the shanks hover by on their small jet engines, Pharrik put one of his lower arms into one of his cloak's pockets, feeling the fist-sized, metallic orb that was filled with rations of ether energy, making sure the precious object was there.

After double-checking on the device, he turned his head back to the door he exited from, looking over one of his shoulder pauldrons, to see two vandal guards exit behind him, followed by Sifaxis, a wire rifle held in her hand, barrel facing the ground, and blue-tinted respirator back over her mouth, a difference from the night before.

"I shall be back by the time night falls" the Wolf captain said, hoisting his gun over his shoulder, as the baroness approached him.

"You always do" she purred, as she walked by. "May you have luck in your watch, and in scavenging what you may find."

Lowering the shrapnel launcher back into his hands once more, Pharrik nodded his helmeted head to her, and turned his back, where he began to trudge off, passing by the multitude of workers and soldiers. It was several minutes before the captain reached the edge of the heavily defended territory, where a large hill sat.

As Pharrik finished walking up to the top of the icy, snow-capped hill, thinking of an old tune in his head, he stopped, and turned back to the large, makeshift fortress, where he saw the dregs and vandals working below, their small shapes sticking out in the white snow like red-and-white ants.

It wasn't long before he spotted his mate, watching with amusement as she ordered them around, directing each available worker toward what defenses needed to be reinforced, what needed to be watched, what shanks needed fixing, etc. She was very competent in what she did, and as a baroness, it was expected of her to lead effectively.

He let his breath exhale from his breathing apparatus once more, letting a thin, grey cloud pass into the air. He was about to resume his trek, deeper into the wilderness, when he heard what sounded like snow crackling nearby, coming from behind a few trees and shrubbery, on another part of the same hill he stood on, that also overlooked the outpost.

Curious, and thinking of it to be some animal he could make into a meal, he decided to investigate.

* * *

"I gotta say, the place is bigger than I expected" Geryl said, examining the snow-covered building from the hillside, as he started to lay down, and got into a comfortable position in the snow, next to his two teammates, who did so just a few seconds prior.

"I don't see any Archon anywhere..." Draid whispered, as he peered through the scope of his sniper rifle, examining the surrounding area.

"Neither do I" Vara-twelve said, as she looked through the scope of her own. "Just dregs and vandals... A few captains here and there, and... Wait a second..."

"What do you see?" Geryl inquired.

"A baroness... She has the colors of the House of Wolves on her..." she said, focussing her sights on the figure further.

"I see her" Draid said. "A mercenary?"

"Maybe..." Vara spoke. "A high-ranking one, if it's the case."

Looking further, as a disappointing thought went on through Draid's head, Vara's Ghost suddenly spoke up, into the three Guardian's coms, saying exactly that very thought that entered his mind.

" _I think I know what's going on..._ " he said. " _The Archon must have replaced himself with a double, to take the fall. He led us on another wild goose chase._ "

"Well... Is there anything you know about the baroness? Is she important at all?" Vara asked, in a dispirited tone.

" _Her name is... Sifaxis Wolf's Eye_ " the Ghost said again. " _From what I can dig up, she's a really good shot with a wire rifle, hence the name. You might want to keep your heads down._ "

"I think _she'll_ be the one who'll want to keep _her_ head down..." Draid tittered, quietly, as he put the blue-armored baroness's head in his sights. "Anything else?"

" _Well... She and her husband, a captain, left the House of Wolves a short time after Skolas's death, to avoid the infighting_ " he said again. " _They've, apparently, been performing mercenary work for whatever House that could hold them since then._ "

"Huh. So, another Wolf's around here..." Geryl spoke. "I wonder where he is..."

No sooner had the titan said that, Draid heard a small, sizzling, electrical noise from behind himself.

Taking his eyes off of his scope, the hunter looked over his shoulder, just in time to see a vaguely rod-shaped object, glowing blue, electrical sparks flying off it, poking out of the snow in between himself, and Vara and Geryl. His eyes widened in surprise and terror the second he realized what it was.

"Grenade!" he screamed, rolling out of the way. Vara heard him right off, and reacted accordingly.

"Wha-?" Geryl stuttered, before he suddenly found his collar getting grabbed by the Exo, who threw them both out of harm's way, and rolling straight down the hill with a grunt.

The shock grenade went off, exploding violently, collapsing the top of the hillside, sending a small avalanche to follow the two Guardians on the way to the bottom of it. All of the Fallen below, including the baroness, heard the small explosion, and looked up to see the mound of snow that fully landed nearby.

Back on the top of the hill, Draid managed to stand up, and looked at the large, four-armed figure, clad in the armor of a Fallen from House Wolves, wading through the deep snow toward him, a hateful expression on his two pairs of eyes. A noticeable feature on the captain was the pair of large horn-like trophies sticking up from his back, giving him a much more intimidating presence.

Unlike most Fallen he had encountered, which would normally yell and scream whatever profanity they knew in their language, Draid was partially taken aback by the fact the captain was eerily silent the entire time he stalked toward him. He was like a phantom, even as he slowly brought the tip of his shrapnel launcher up, until it was fully aiming at him, its muzzle blazing with its fiery glow.

Before Draid could raise his sniper rifle in defense, the Fallen let a round escape his weapon, hitting the Guardian directly in his chest with a beam of exploding shrapnel, and the force sent him flying through the air, away from his rifle, where he hit a tree, partially breaking it, and fell back to the ground.

"Guess... Guess I know where he is now..." Draid groaned to himself, sorely, pulling his pistol out. He was able to crack two shots at his foe, each hitting against the larger creature's arc shield, before the Fallen unexpectedly teleported away in a wisp of blue energy.

Draid quickly got to his feet, switching his pistol with his shotgun, holstering the former, and pulling the latter from his back.

"Where did you go..." he muttered under his breath, looking around the snowy, tree-filled area for his enemy. The swishing sound of something behind himself told the hunter the answer.

Turning, he fired his weapon, just as the Fallen unleashed his, each gun letting out a loud, ear-rattling bang as they went off. The resulting scattershot from each hit the launcher out of the captain's hands, along with creating a few holes in the back of his cape, while snow was blown up in Draid's face, causing him to flinch back in reaction.

He recovered quickly, and looked back to the captain, who had left his gun on the ground, and had proceeded to charge at the Guardian. Draid carefully took aim, and fired.

The captain teleported the second he shot again, and appeared right in front of him, where he instantly knocked the shotgun out of his hands, grabbed him by the throat with his forearms, and began lifting him from the ground...

* * *

Back at the bottom of the hill, Geryl was just finishing digging himself out of the snow, grumbling angrily, unable to locate his gun, and looked up just in time to see several Fallen troops approaching him. Quitting his carping, he raised his hands in a gesture of surrender, as a single vandal walked up to him, a shock rifle in its hands.

"Ferra straw!" the four-armed alien yelled in its language, getting closer, weapon pointed at the Guardian's head. "Dres Ghoul! Ista neeket shess! Va-"

The vandal's head suddenly erupted in a burst of white light, its soul escaping its body with an ethereal scream, as a shot rang out from under the snow, next to Geryl.

He looked down, and saw Vara-twelve's hand poking out, a pistol in it, just before her body emerged as well.

"Couldn't find your gun. Use this" she said, in a quick, serious manner, tossing the firearm to him, before taking out her sniper rifle again from her side. "Draid didn't come down with us. We're on our own."

"Thanks for the heads up" he replied, gunning down a dreg as it charged at him.

"Don't mention it" she replied, blasting away another vandal with a burst of blue energy from her hand, evaporating the creature. "We just need to kill that baroness, and it's all over. We can handle that, can't we?"

"I've got a gun in my hand, and a warlock best friend by my side. Anything's possible!" Geryl chuckled, preparing for the oncoming slugfest that was about to occur. "We just need to find some cover, and we're set. Draid can handle himself, and when he's done killing that mook that sent us off the cliff, I'm sure he'll get our back..."

* * *

 _This Guardian's a lot tougher than most I've encountered..._ Pharrik thought to himself, as hurled the hunter to the ground with his upper pair of arms, watching as he made a person-shaped crater in the snow, the wind getting knocked out of him, as indicated by his sore cough that came after.

After kicking him once in the gut, he grabbed him by the neck, and lifted him up again. The Wolf violently threw him away once more, where the hunter smacked against the side of a tree, breaking some of the bark off of it, and landed on the ground, where he went limp.

Letting out a triumphant huff after seeing his body lay unmoving for more than a dozen seconds, Pharrik calmly turned, and picked his shrapnel launcher up from the snow, brushing it off. He looked back at the Guardian's direction, and began to trudge his large, hunched frame over to him, adjusting the weapon for its next use.

"You Ghouls have been a blight upon the Eliksni for too long..." he spoke with his dry voice, in the Guardian's language, as he reached his quarry, and poked the tip of the weapon on his back. Using it, he flipped the Guardian over, until his other half faced him, where he could get a good, clean shot.

Without warning, the Guardian came back to life, and, with a roar, burst from the ground, knocking the shrapnel launcher aside, and plunged a knife into Pharrik's chest armor, surprising him.

"...And we'll continue to be a blight on you for a while longer!" the man growled, still clinging to Pharrik, pulling out his pistol, and firing it upward, at Pharrik's head.

Moving his head at the last second, the shot grazed his blue-tinted helm, and hit his left horn-trophy instead, chipping its tip off, angering the Fallen greatly when he noticed.

Clasping the man's gun arm with two of his hands, he was about to throttle him, had his foe's attacking not let up.

His other hand still free, he let go of the knife still lodged in Pharrik's chest, and curled it into a fist. The Guardian then rammed it across the Fallen's face, reeled it back, and did it again, and again, and again, the fourth, tremendous hit partially tearing off Pharrik's respirator.

With a final kick, he freed himself of the dizzied captain, ripping his knife out in the process, and jumping back.

Pharrik soon regained control of himself, and stopped stumbling. He situated his respirator again with one of his lower arms, and hoisted his launcher back into a more comfortable position, as he watched the human get into a defensive stance, a knife in one hand, and a pistol in the other.

"By the way, I forgot to mention, nice english" the hunter mock-complimented, ready to dodge Pharrik's next shot. "...And here I thought you were just some other dumb alien with a gun and death wish..."

Without hesitating, Pharrik brought the man into his sights, and fired, but the hunter jumped his cloaked frame away, and landed right next to his shotgun again, picking it up before the Wolf captain could calculate his next shot.

They both took aim at each other again, and fired.

* * *

Geryl and Vara-twelve ran up to, and hid behind one of the makeshift barriers the Fallen had created, made of brick and steel, each taking quick shots at the oncoming horde every time they poked their heads out, and taking down any that dared approach with a quick punch, bludgeon, stab, or burst of magic.

Vara took another shot with her sniper rifle, killing a Devil's captain with a direct hit to the chest, staining the surrounding snow with red blood. Charged up with power, she then sent out a nova blast that exploded in a ball of blue energy, vaporizing several dregs, vandals, and shanks, before she finally spotted the baroness.

The female Fallen stood behind a barrel almost a hundred feet from them, aiming her wire rifle at them, patiently waiting for the perfect time to strike. The Exo reeled back, and reloaded, noticing she was almost out of ammo for her weapon.

"I see her" she spoke to Geryl. "Quick, throw something that will distract these guys, while I pick her off."

"With pleasure..." the titan replied, pulling out a grenade. Pressing its activation button, he tossed the round object out a far distance, where it disappeared in the snow, and went off with an earsplitting explosion.

Vara poked her head out with lightning speed, quickly getting her target's head in her sights when the accompanying smoke departed enough. She twitched her finger on the trigger, ready to instantly take out the baroness with perfect efficiency and accuracy, prepared to send her soul screaming to the heavens...

Then the glass on her scope shattered to dust as a bolt of arc energy from the baroness's rifle went straight through it, and hit the Guardian directly in the head, near where her right eye would be, had her helmet not have been there to obscure her face.

The Exo slumped to her side with a gasp, onto the ground, a hole burned into her visor, as her titan companion looked down in utter horror.

"V-Vara!" he shouted in despair, bending over to his fallen ally. "No, no, no!"

He suddenly reeled back in pain as a snarling dreg jumped up from behind himself, and stabbed him repeatedly in the shoulder with a shock dagger. Reacting accordingly, he turned, and roared as he punched it in the face, shattering its skull, and killing it instantly, throwing it back with he force he used.

He pulled the knife out of his back with a pain-filled grunt, and tossed it away, before refocussing his attention on the heavily injured warlock that laid at his knees, while sparks and shots from Fallen weapons continued to whizz through the air nearby.

" _She needs medical attention. Get her out of here, now!_ " his Ghost shouted on the com, urgently. The titan nodded in agreement, as he set to action.

"D-don't worry..." he spoke, softly, as he picked the Exo's limp, moaning body up in his hands. "I'll get you out of here, Vara... Don't worry..."

With a free hand, he summoned his Sparrow, and it teleported right in front of him. Quickly, and carefully placing her body into a semi-comfortable sitting position on the front, he leapt onto the levitating vehicle right behind her, and began to speed off, into the frozen wasteland, before any more fire could hit the two of them.

Upon seeing her enemy fleeing out of sight, Sifaxis let her guard down, and raised her rifle up in one hand, letting out a booming cheer of victory, the hundreds of surviving Fallen around her joining in with their roars.

* * *

Back on the top of the hill, Draid was doing slightly better than his teammates, but only slightly, as seen by how he was sent to the ground when the butt of Pharrik's shrapnel launcher hit him across the face.

The Fallen lifted his foot to stomp on the hapless hunter, but Draid rolled out of the way just in time, and brought the barrel of his pistol up, and let loose several shots, which either deflected off Pharrik's arc shield, or his armor.

Thoroughly pissed-off by the attack, Pharrik was about to fire on him, when the Guardian kicked his leg out, tripping him instead, sending his larger body into the snow.

Scrambling to his feet, Draid snatched his shotgun, and rushed toward the tree line, when he suddenly heard an incoming message came onto his com.

With an impatient sigh, he answered it, while simultaneously turning to see his enemy finish getting back up, shaking the snow off of his cape, and looking toward him, angrily.

"Whatever it is, it better be good..." he growled into the com, hiding behind a tree as makeshift cover, keeping a close eye on the captain coming his way.

" _It's the opposite of good, Draid! We need you back here, now!_ " Geryl's voice yelled on the other end, while the sound of the Sparrow he was riding on buzzed in the background. " _Vara's been shot in the head... I'm injured... Damn it, we need you!_ "

Draid went quiet for a moment, shocked by what he just heard.

"Don't worry, I'll be right there! Give me a few minutes!" he finally replied, ending the transmission, just as the sound of the Fallen's shrapnel launcher went out, shredding the trunk of the pine he was hiding behind to splinters.

He jumped back as the tree noisily toppled, and fell to the ground, and avoided the next shot that came from Pharrik's weapon, running back out into the deep, open snow, holstering both of his weapons.

He turned as the Fallen pointed his shrapnel launcher once more, and began to speak to him, catching the alien's attention.

"Listen, ugly..." he started, raising one of his hands to him.

Intrigued by the sudden turn in action, Pharrik quietly lowered his weapon, listening intently to what his enemy had to say.

"This... This isn't over. My friends need me, but you can bet on your life that this is far from over. I'll be back, soon. Count on it."

With those final words, Draid activated his Sparrow in a fast manner, and hopped aboard it the moment it materialized, zooming off into the tundra, while Pharrik looked on, letting him go.

All the Fallen could do was let his guard down as the shape disappeared over the horizon. With the battle over, and nothing to do, Pharrik shrugged his shoulders, and turned, headed back for home. As he walked on, thinking of the fight that had just occurred, he couldn't help but notice the first flakes of snow that begun to fall from the sky.

"Give me their coordinates..." Draid asked his Ghost, as he sped off, fear and worry swelling up inside of him at the gravity of his current situation. Without so much as a question, his mechanical friend did so, projecting a map in front of him as he drove on.


	3. Chapter 3: Licking Your Wounds

Chapter 3: Licking Your Wounds

"I _did_ warn you to keep your head down" Vara's Ghost said, as he floated around the Exo, his triangular body parts making clicking noises as they adjusted.

The Exo herself sat on an old, wooden chair, over the concrete floor of a small room in the abandoned, half-buried building that she and the other two Guardians had found, and were in. She was holding her defunct, damaged, burned optic in one of her hands, inspecting it with her only other remaining eye under the light that shown down from the ceiling, courtesy of the Ghost activating the old building they found's power.

"That's the second time you've said that now..." Vara growled to her robotic companion, turning her unhooded face up to him, showing the black, burnt-out hole where her right eye used to be, the light from above bouncing off of her smooth, bald, metal head. "Could you _please_ not rub it in so much?"

"Oh, but who could pass up such a sweet opportunity as this?" the Ghost said again, sarcastically, getting a small chuckle out of her.

"Are... Are you sure we won't be able to fix it?" she asked, after a small moment of silence.

"I said it was unlikely" he said again, just before a blue ray of light shot out of his eye, and scanned over the warlock's face, then the eye in her hand. "I never said it was impossible."

As she sighed, she heard the sound of footsteps coming from behind her.

"Hey, Vara... It's me, Geryl. How're you holding up?" the titan's voice went out, which instantly placed an evil idea into her mind.

"It's bad... Very bad..." she lied, repressing the urge to laugh, changing her smirk into a frown, and turning to him, noticing the helmet he carried under his arm, leaving his pale face exposed. "The damage got into my head, and my Ghost said I've only got a few hours left before my brain module shuts down for good."

The titan stopped in his tracks the moment he heard her say that, and the expression on his face went blank.

"Are you... Are you serious?" he asked, his voice now much more hollow-sounding.

"No..." she replied, giggling quietly, her smile returning.

"Oh, come-freaking-on, Vara! I saved your life! You don't have to go scaring the tar out of me like that!" he cried out, walking up to his friend again, who was now, shamelessly, laughing out loud.

"You get shot in the head, you're missing an eye, and the first thing you can think of is making a joke about it?" he said again, as he placed his helmet on the nearby table.

"What can I say? I've been waiting to... "Pull" something like this for a while..." she snickered, placing her mechanical eyeball on right next to the dark-colored helm, the damaged, torn-up wire it was attached to coiling around it. "...By the way, how's your shoulder doing? I can't see those bandages you acquired when you're wearing your cloak and armor over it..."

"You're not changing the subject that easily, cyclops" he muttered, rubbing the sore area where she spoke of.

Things went silent between them for a good few seconds, and Geryl's brownish eyes widened in fearful realization over what he had just said, while Vara's only eye curled into one of anger.

"...What did you just call me?" she finally asked in a growl.

"I think I should... Go now. I'll... Make sure to check back in on you with what results I can get" Vara's Ghost piped in, before vanishing into thin air, leaving the two in the room, alone.

"Okay, okay, I'm... Sorry" Geryl quickly apologized, looking to the floor, briefly, before looking back to his friend. "It's just that... You almost died a few hours ago, and now... You're already making jokes about it. "

"Coming from the guy who almost lost a hand to a Vex back on Mars, and was already saying the classics, like "gotta hand it to you," and "can ya give me a hand" within the first hour?"

"My injuries weren't life threatening..." he mumbled.

"Alright, fine. Let's just forget this..." she sighed, rubbing her metal forehead with her hand in a tired fashion. "It was a prank. I thought it was funny, you didn't. It's as simple as that. It happens."

Geryl huffed, and folded his arms. They both looked away in another bout of silence, for a few seconds, before the Exo broke it once more.

"How's Draid doing?" she decided to ask. The titan turned to her, an unsure expression on his face.

"He... Hasn't been taking it very well" the titan replied.

"Yeah, well, I'd probably act pouty too, if one of you guys got hit really bad..." she said.

"That's not all what it's about" Geryl responded.

"What's it about then?" she asked, as she placed her hands on her hips. "Is it that lone Fallen that was kicking his can the entire time we were there?"

"Something along those lines..." he slowly said back.

* * *

Pharrik stood, unmoving in the tree line, as the storm raged on around him. The Fallen's blue cloak had enveloped his body, covering his two pairs of arms, concealing them, and the shrapnel launcher that was held at the ready, in his upper pair. His four eyes remained transfixed on where he purposefully placed the hunter's sniper rifle, a trap for the Guardian, sitting on the ledge where they previously fought, propped up against one of the mounds of snow, in plain sight.

He had been staring at the frozen, snow-covered weapon, and nothing more, for the past three hours, waiting, ever so patiently, for his prey to appear. From underneath his cloak, Pharrik repeatedly fumbled with his large shock dagger, using one of his lower hands to take it out from its hilt, reminiscing on all the times he had used it in his past hunts, and then put it away again. He could faintly hear it click back into its sheath, against the howling night wind that soared by his head.

Breaking the cycle, a crunching noise of heavy footsteps against the deep, brittle ground was suddenly heard by the captain, coming from behind him in a slowly approaching manner. He calmly turned, and was pleasantly surprised to see the familiar shape of the baroness, clad in thick fur and cloth, heading his way through the rapidly falling snow.

"Why have you come out here?" he asked, as she came up to him.

"To ask you to return inside" she replied. "I don't think the Guardian you spoke of is going to come. It would be mad, even for them."

"He _is_ going to come..." Pharrik responded, with a small chuckle. "I know it. I feel it. And when he does show, I'm going to be here, and I'm going to be ready for him."

Sifaxis went quiet for a few moments, knowing her mate had made up his stubborn mind. She knew him long, and well enough to know when arguing would do nothing to stop him, especially if it was an event like this.

"If... That is your final say on the matter, then I shall leave you to it" she begrudgingly said, lowering her head. "If you wish to come back inside, I recommend you do it soon. You might freeze stiff if you spend any longer out here."

"I may return back... Soon" he spoke, in a tantalizing way, just as she turned, and started to leave again. "If I don't see him in another hour, I'll... Think about it."

"Hmph" the baroness huffed, hiding a smirk. "I do hope you return. You and I were lucky to have survived today. You should relax now."

She turned, walked down the hill, and was gone before too long, leaving Pharrik alone once more. He turned back to the weapon he was using as bait, and resumed his careful watch, as the blizzard went on, patiently waiting...

* * *

In the slightly larger room adjacent to where Vara and Geryl were, and the one that lead to the outside, Draid was just putting his helmet back on. His Ghost floated around his head, examining his armor for any repairable damage.

"I still don't think this is a good idea..." the flying mechanoid said, as he flew back to the front of the Guardian's face.

C'mon... It's me you're talking about" he laughed back, as he propped his hood over his head. "We've traveled to the deepest reaches of the moon together, and then some. A storm like this will be a walk in the park."

"I have serious doubts about that" he gulped, listening to the sound of the storm outside. "It will probably be more like... Wading through a flash flood."

The Ghost disappeared, just before Draid heard the door behind him open up. He turned, and saw Geryl enter the room, a sour expression on his face.

"I... See you're all ready to leave" he spoke, in a low tone.

"I'm going back there, Geryl" Draid replied, picking up his revolver, and holstering it by his side. "You can't stop me. I'll be back by morning."

"Draid, you can't just go out in the storm like this!" the titan shouted. "Either you'll freeze to death, or you'll get buried alive, assuming the Fallen don't get to you!"

"I'm not going to engage them, I'm just getting my sniper rifle back" he retorted. "And I'll see if I can get Vara's, if it's still there."

"I don't care about a stupid hunk of weaponized metal" the Exo's voice suddenly said, as she appeared from behind the door, following Geryl. "I care about life. That includes yours."

"Vara... You should be resting" Draid said, once he saw her.

"No, that's what _you_ should be doing" she began, as she walked up to him. "I, currently, may be lacking an eye, but I still have more common sense still in my head than you do at the moment."

"You guys don't understand..." he sighed again. "I said I'm just getting my rife back."

"Yeah, well, you're going to freeze before you get a mile from here" she argued.

"That's what I said!" Geryl shouted.

"Guys! Can you just listen!" Draid yelled. They both quieted down, and looked back at Draid, letting him speak.

"You both know I've trained myself for environments like this. For the last time, I'm just going to get my sniper rifle. It's a rare, ancient, and powerful weapon that I can't just give up and leave to be subjected to the elements, or be abused by a Fallen."

"You have several more just like it!" Geryl argued again.

"But this isn't one of those one" the hunter spoke. "It was..."

"It was the LDR five-thousand-and-one... Wasn't it?" Vara sighed, finishing his sentence, before closing her eye, wearily.

"With... The Longview SLR-twenty long range scope, and high caliber, armor-piercing iridium-core rounds" he responded, blatantly.

"The one with the clown cartridge?" the Exo asked again.

"Yes, the one with the clown cartridge" he answered back.

""Ballistic Heartbreak"" Geryl chuckled, reciting the weapon's description, before tensing up again, with a fake cough. "Well... I can see why you want it back so badly."

"And I'm willing to bet that if I don't go back to where I last saw it, those Fallen will get their claws on it" he growled, looking back to the door.

"What do you think, Vara?" the titan asked the warlock. She only stood there, a ticked-off expression on her metallic face, before replying.

"Okay, fine. You know what? It's your decision" she finally spoke, turning away. "You want to die for your gun, it's your choice, not mine. Now, If you'll excuse me, I have an eye to repair."

She quietly left the room, leaving Geryl and Draid alone. The titan rubbed his injured shoulder, and looked at his hunter friend.

"I wouldn't do this if I were you, but, at the very least, promise me you'll get back alive, and in one piece" he pleaded.

"I will" he promised. "Keep an eye on Vara while I'm gone, no pun intended, and help her out while you both heal. I'll be back before sunrise, assuming it doesn't take me that long to sift through the snow."

Nodding his head, Geryl calmly left, joining the Exo in the other room.

Focussing back to the large, metal door, Draid proceeded to open it up with a loud screech on its heavily rusted hinges, and immediately saw the raging blizzard that waited outside for him.

With a final check on his shotgun, pistol, assault rifle and knife, he set off into the cold, stormy dark, alone, closing the door behind himself as he left.

* * *

 **Author's notes:** Sorry for the short chapter. Had a bad case of writer's block, and was very busy (I'm graduating soon). Another chapter may come soon, but I have three other stories I'm thinking of creating.

Ta-ta for now!


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